The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69590 Message #1181560
Posted By: Joe Offer
09-May-04 - 12:52 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: roving ploughboy
Subject: ADD: The Roving Ploughboy-O
Letty, where's your version from? Here's another version:
The Roving Ploughboy-O
Come saddle tae me my auld grey mare Come saddle tae me my pony-O And I will tak' the road and I'll go far away After the roving ploughboy-O Ploughboy-O Ploughboy-O I'll follow the roving ploughboy-O
Last night I lay on a fine feather bed Sheets and blankets sae cosy-O This night I maun lie in a cold barn shed Wrapped in the arms o' my ploughboy-O
A champion ploughman, my Geordie-O Cups and medals and prizes-O On bonny Devronside there are none to compare With my jolly roving ploughboy-O
Sae fare ye well to old Huntley toon Fare thee well, Drumdelgie-O For noo I'm on the road and I'm goin' far awa' After the roving ploughboy-O
recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1953, from the singing of John MacDonald, Elgin, Moray Scotland.
source: Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland, Kennedy.
Notes from Kennedy: This song is a reworking by the singer of a traditional fragment. Because it has similar verses and tune one would conclude that it is a bothy parody of the ballad "The Gipsy Laddie" mentioned by Ord in Bothy Songs and Ballads (p. 42). In fact it uses a similar tune to that sung by Jeannie Robertson for The Gipsy Laddie. Variants of the same tune are also used for two other popular Occupational Songs: The Brewer Lad and The Collier Laddie (the latter touched up by Robert Burns). In a note to the The Collier Laddie Ord remarks that in the north eastern counties of Scotland (Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Morayshire) 'Ploughman Laddie' is substituted for 'Collier Laddie'. He gives the opening verse:
I've been East and I've been West And I've been in St Johnstone, But the bonniest laddie that ever I saw Was a ploughman laddie dancing
The Collier Laddie too would seem to be parodied on The Gipsy Laddie.
I'll gie her lands and I'll gie her rents And I'll make her a lady, I'll make her one of a higher degree Than to follow a collier laddie
Another song with a similar tune is Mormond Braes, but it could also be a fragment of the same song:
There's as guid fish into the sea As ever yet was taken I'll cast my line and try again I'm only once forsaken
Sae fare ye weel, ye Mormond Braes Where aftimes I've been cheery Fare ye wee!, ye Mormond Braes For it's there I've lost my dearie
This in turn could also be part of The Brewer Lad which has similar verses:
She has rambled up, she's rambled down She's rambled through Kirkcaldy And mony's the time she rues the day She jilted her brewer laddie